


Scan

by agent_florida



Category: Firefly, Serenity (2005)
Genre: F/M, Medical Procedures, Nudity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-12
Updated: 2011-03-12
Packaged: 2017-11-23 19:47:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/625878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agent_florida/pseuds/agent_florida
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nothing he can say is going to talk her out of this fear, but he might as well try.</p><p>Pre-Ariel, spoilers for Inara's secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scan

“Simon.”  
  
He’d been watching River sleep, and hearing his name in that gentle voice made him jump just a little. “Inara,” he acknowledged her.  
  
She stepped into the tiny room, fluid and graceful. “I trust River is doing better today.”  
  
He sighed. “I can’t tell yet. This is her second smoother. She – she’s rattling off stream-of-consciousness, but the things she says…”  
  
Inara laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. “She’ll be all right.” A pause while they both watched her, and then, “How long will she be asleep?”  
  
“Four hours, if her metabolism is anything like I think it is.”  
  
“Then I need to ask you a favor.”  
  
With Simon, favors usually entailed an exam table and an injection or two, so they naturally headed to the med bay. He didn’t expect to watch Inara strip for this, though. “Whoa, whoa,” he said, putting a hand up to block her now-naked breasts from his vision. He’d still seen her skin, its usually warm tones made harsh by the cold blue light of the room. “There’s no need for that.”  
  
“Simon, please.” It was a more desperate tone than he’d ever heard from her, and it made him pause, taking his hand down slightly so he could see her face. Her eyebrows were knitted together, eyes wide, rouged lips parted in a plea. “I need you to do a full-body diagnostic.”  
  
“Which I can do just as well with your clothes on,” he pointed out. He could feel his face flushing, and he thanked the fluorescent lighting for hiding that fact from the very pretty Companion who was now completely bare in front of him.  
  
“I need to update my license.” When Simon flashed her a look of confusion, she clarified, “To remain a Guild-certified Companion. I need to pass a physical exam, and I – I…”  
  
It was the first time he’d ever seen Inara at a loss for words. “Just to clarify,” and he licked his lips, his mouth suddenly dry, “you mean this in an entirely medical sense, correct?”  
  
The Inara he knew came back to the fore. “Of course, Simon, what – did you think I was soliciting you as a client?” She laughed, but it was good-natured, and she wound a scarf around her torso to hide her chest from his eyes. “If you would prefer –”  
  
“Yes, I would.” He brought out the imaging equipment. “Mostly because this can give me an internal scan without any – any…”  
  
She smiled, warm and bright, teeth white. “Oh, Simon. We’re both professionals here.”  
  
“I think you’re the only professional in this room,” he joked. “I’m a fugitive from the law.”  
  
“And a very competent surgeon, I hear,” she teased, seating herself in the exam chair.  
  
“You’re insinuating that I’ve dealt with naked bodies all the time.” He let out a nervous titter as he maneuvered the chair to his specifications and calibrated the scanner. “Hundreds. Thousands. And none of them were Companions. You, on the other hand, are a professional at getting naked.”  
  
She actually laughed. “Only when I’m paid.”  
  
“Or when you’re examined.” Her behavior was putting Simon off his guard. Something was wrong here. Either she really was intending to seduce him, with her giggles and her teasing, or she was covering for something. “All right, everything’s calibrated. You’re going to feel a little tingle, but I’ll need you to stay still.”  
  
She nodded, terse and tight, and he started the scan. It coursed over her body, tracing every curve of it, and Simon couldn’t help but watch the screen of light as it ran down, down, and further still. She was beautiful, but she was also hiding something. “Is it done? Can I see?”  
  
“It’s nothing you would understand,” he muttered, manipulating the image on the scan screen so he could see it closer. “Is there anything in particular that I’m looking for? Any pains, any discomfort, any strange or unusual symptoms?”  
  
“Not recently.”  
  
It wasn’t a ‘no’, and so he was extra-vigilant in going over the scan. “Well, it looks like you’re mostly healthy, but you have a lot of lymph node activity going on and your liver’s running overtime.” He smiled sheepishly at her. “I guess that’s only to be expected when you’re sharing germ environments with someone new every few days.”  
  
Her nervous façade broke into a smile. “You’re a good deal more suave than Mal is about calling me a whore,” she joked. “But… my liver?”  
  
“I would say it’s nothing to worry about… but that’s not entirely true,” he amended, looking back over the scan. “You said you hadn’t had any symptoms ‘recently’. Can you elaborate?”  
  
“Well, I…” For the first time since they’d met, she looked unsure. Looking anywhere but his face, she eventually admitted, “I was told I have some kind of… progressive disease?”  
  
“Inara.” Her eye contact was fierce, but his bedside manner remained unfazed. “There’s nothing excessively abnormal about these scans.  _You’re healthy._  It’s okay.”  
  
“And you’re sure about this?” She seemed disappointed when he nodded. “So I’m going to pass my exam once we get to Ariel?”  
  
“With flying colors,” he assured her.  
  
She still seemed unsure as she floated out of the med bay, but he took another look at the scans to confirm. Everything checked out normally, but he saved them for future reference, just to be sure. What bothered him more than the request for an exam, though, was a question hovering in the back of his mind.  
  
 _Who would have put the idea in her head that she was dying?_


End file.
